# Thieves Paid the Entrance Fee, Then Took the Vix Torque > The 2,500 year old gold collar was taken from a museum in Burgundy in the middle of a Friday morning. Prosecutors are treating it as organised crime, and the government has announced a national security plan for museums. - Source: France 247 - Canonical URL: https://france247.news/article/vix-gold-torque-stolen-chatillonnais-museum - Author: Julien Moreau - Section: Culture - Published: 2026-07-28T11:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-07-28T11:00:00.000Z - Tags: Museums, Heritage, Theft, Archaeology --- The gold torque from the Vix burial was stolen from the Musee du Pays Chatillonnais in Chatillon-sur-Seine on the morning of Friday 24 July. The thieves bought tickets and walked in as visitors, broke the case holding the collar at around half past ten, and left through the main entrance. The piece is roughly 2,500 years old and is the best known object in a Celtic princely burial that ranks among the most important Iron Age finds in Europe. Prosecutors have opened an organised crime investigation, with the specialised interregional court in Nancy assisting given the complexity of the case, and a suspect has since been arrested. The government has announced a national security plan for museums and monuments, which is the standard response and, in this instance, also an admission that several French institutions have now been robbed in similar conditions. The method is the part worth dwelling on. There was no night entry, no alarm defeated in the dark, no tunnel. A regional museum in a small town opens at a set hour, admits whoever pays, and relies on a display case and staff attention during the day. That model works until someone decides the object is worth walking in for. The gold value of a torque is trivial next to what it is. Melted down it is a few kilos of metal, which is why heritage professionals fear these thefts more than art thefts of comparable value: a painting has to be sold to be worth anything, and an ancient gold object does not. Recovering it intact is the only outcome that means anything, and the clock on that started on Friday. --- Originally published by France 247. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://france247.news/article/vix-gold-torque-stolen-chatillonnais-museum.